A compilation of addresses of potential and existing customers is an important asset for any company that uses traditional methods to identify, manage and allocate the multiple types of addresses that are configured for a professional to meet multiple operational needs for customer management, personal and non-personal communications. However, it can be a daunting task to keep a large compilation of addresses up-to-date and accurate.
A person often has multiple addresses of different types or categories. These addresses can enter into private or public records through many channels, for example, state or federal government authorizations, licensing or certification, membership in professional associations, registration of real property or motor vehicles, posting in advertisements, etc. After the addresses become available in these original sources, they can later be transferred to, shared or purchased by myriads of organizational entities including the government, communities, or commercial vendors (these become “secondary sources” for the addresses). The reliability of some of these sources can be questionable, as they are typically not actively monitored. For example, when a person changes his or her address, the change often is likely reflected in only a few of the above sources at the outset (and can percolate through other sources at different times). As a result, many sources, especially the secondary sources, can contain a significant portion of outdated addresses.
A user may want to gather the addresses of the persons of interest from various sources. However, the use of multiple address sources does not guarantee a broader reach to the targeted audience, but instead can create confusion and cause more waste. This is due to not only the varying reliability of the individual sources, but also the conflicts or inconsistencies of the addresses provided by the different sources. For example, an address can be present in one source, but not another; a person can have multiple office addresses reported by different sources, yet no information is available as to which one is more current. Without further analysis or investigation, a user of such addresses will not be able to use them effectively.
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods that can assess the currency and reliability of addresses obtained from various sources, as well as to reconcile the inconsistencies of a large amount of addresses obtained from different sources. There is also a need for presenting the analyzed addresses to a user in an understandable format to allow the user to more effectively use the addresses.